To improve performance, they remove suspected deficiencies with surgical precision. Overriding objectives are maximizing earnings and cash flow. Therefore, there is no room for sentimentality; only tough measures will do.

In short, vigorously boost short-term results. Then sell the enterprise with a well-deserved, tax-sheltered profit to some other party that is eager to give optimization another try.

It is about time we applied this proven corporate problem-solving to our society's woes. Take for instance the staggering 47 percent parasitic segment of our nation's population. These folks may have been of value in the past when they were active in the workforce or provided military services for this country. But since they subsequently turned into habitual non-performers, shamefully leeching off government programs, they need to be confronted with relentlessness.

Romney's impeccable business practices are widely proclaimed. So is his unselfish, patriotic drive to minimize taxes for higher income earners to help job creation and aid federal deficit reduction. Add to this his unambiguous, unwavering political convictions, and there emerges the quintessential candidate to clean house in Washington.

Who says government couldn't be run like a business? After all, corporations are people.

In a commendable attempt to clarify what U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana tried to say about abortion and rape, Doblin has unwittingly stumbled into a muddle of his own. Of the slaying of two children by their nanny, he said, "God had nothing to do with it."

Excuse me, but God is said to be all-powerful. That means that he is definitely involved in the nanny slaying, as well as in rapes, the Holocaust and in everything else that happens. We just do not know what his plan is — assuming he exists, if he is indeed all-powerful and if he even has a plan.

Given this mystery, can we all not, therefore, just leave God out of politics and instead settle problems with common sense and basic decency?

Manfred Weidhorn

Fair Lawn, Oct. 29

Misjudging

Peg Watkins

Regarding "Flap over remarks about Dr. King" (Page L-1, Oct. 25):

Margaret Watkins, Republican candidate for Bergen County freeholder, has taken an incredibly unfair hit in The Record.

We spent two decades together in a South Bronx school of 5,000 almost all minority students. We worked in a special program. Two previous teachers in her spot had been assaulted. When Watkins took over, she literally went into alleys and rooftops where abandoned teens lived. She went to court for them. She gave them something they had never had: real hope. They responded.

Watkins was chosen Bronx high schools teacher of the year and was twice nominated for the Presidential Award as one of the top three high school math teachers in New York State. She capitalized on this recognition by getting a major corporation to donate $50,000 to create our first computer lab.

Frelinghuysen voted to send young men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, when bills came before the House to provide job training for these veterans, or tax breaks for widows and orphans of soldiers who gave their lives protecting us, Frelinghuysen and other radical Republicans voted no.

The good news: Democrat John Arvanites wants to be our congressman. As mayor of Roseland, Arvanites — a CPA — developed a reputation as a budget expert by cutting waste and delivering budgets without tax increases. John worked with Democrats, independents and Republicans who, like him, were committed to reform.

Arvanites will be part of the solution to congressional gridlock. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results. What's happening right now in Congress is insane.

Dianne Douthat

Wayne, Nov. 1

Appropriate

response by Romney

Regarding "Cynical use of Sandy for political purposes" (Your Views, Nov. 1):

The letter writer contends that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has no empathy for the average American. Sadly, I knew that it would be a matter of time for the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy to be put toward political use.

Let me get this straight: Mitt Romney should donate $10 million because "he can." Say he writes that check and hands it to the Red Cross. Now what? He goes back to campaigning? He suspends campaigning? How about he throws together a $30,000-a-plate, black-tie event with his wealthy cronies for hurricane relief?

I believe that a "relief rally" is an excellent way to gather thousands of average Americans and work toward a common cause: dealing with the devastation in the tri-state area. While it is not Romney's place to tour the destruction and an immediate visit to the area would simply distract relief efforts, he is doing his part in leading a relief effort while allowing the president to do his job.

The media coverage is not of American elites writing expensive checks; it's of average Americans carrying pets out of flooded homes or cooking meals for first responders.

Dionne hit the nail on the head. If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were to run on what the new right wing of their party and the Tea Party espouse, this election wouldn't even be close. They are hiding from what they truly stand for because they know the country would reject their ideas and principles.

This is a moderate country, always was and always will be.

Mike Connor

Wood-Ridge, Nov. 1

Pell Grants

are not welfare

In a sorely misguided statement, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, recently characterized several higher education programs as welfare. Among them are Pell Grants and federal work-study programs.

Sessions' depiction of Pell and work study as welfare is insulting to the millions of Americans who participate in these programs. By categorizing them as handouts, he ignores the fact that these students are striving to achieve the American dream by earning their way into the middle class.

College costs continue to increase, and a typical Pell recipient is working while in school to pay for that education. Next year's maximum Pell Grant will cover the smallest share of college costs in the history of the program. The 44 percent of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants in Sessions' home state can certainly attest to the fact that Pell and work study get them closer to securing a brighter future.

Pell isn't important just to the students. Investing in education pays dividends for our nation's economy as well. By supporting higher education, we expand opportunity and boost workforce productivity.

To improve performance, they remove suspected deficiencies with surgical precision. Overriding objectives are maximizing earnings and cash flow. Therefore, there is no room for sentimentality; only tough measures will do.

In short, vigorously boost short-term results. Then sell the enterprise with a well-deserved, tax-sheltered profit to some other party that is eager to give optimization another try.

It is about time we applied this proven corporate problem-solving to our society's woes. Take for instance the staggering 47 percent parasitic segment of our nation's population. These folks may have been of value in the past when they were active in the workforce or provided military services for this country. But since they subsequently turned into habitual non-performers, shamefully leeching off government programs, they need to be confronted with relentlessness.

Romney's impeccable business practices are widely proclaimed. So is his unselfish, patriotic drive to minimize taxes for higher income earners to help job creation and aid federal deficit reduction. Add to this his unambiguous, unwavering political convictions, and there emerges the quintessential candidate to clean house in Washington.

Who says government couldn't be run like a business? After all, corporations are people.

In a commendable attempt to clarify what U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana tried to say about abortion and rape, Doblin has unwittingly stumbled into a muddle of his own. Of the slaying of two children by their nanny, he said, "God had nothing to do with it."

Excuse me, but God is said to be all-powerful. That means that he is definitely involved in the nanny slaying, as well as in rapes, the Holocaust and in everything else that happens. We just do not know what his plan is — assuming he exists, if he is indeed all-powerful and if he even has a plan.

Given this mystery, can we all not, therefore, just leave God out of politics and instead settle problems with common sense and basic decency?